


clothed in light

by goukyorin (sashimisusie)



Series: her rank equals mine [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, Gen, Gift Fic, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 19:49:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2885180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sashimisusie/pseuds/goukyorin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Subtlety is not her strong suit, and if one was to ask the Left Hand, it wouldn’t even be in the dictionary of words that could be used to define the Right Hand. Which is why no one expects Cassandra to be the first to crack the code that encrypts the Spymaster’s list for Wintersend, nor for her to actually get anything from said list, much less this particular item.</p>
            </blockquote>





	clothed in light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [varentains (storminlover)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/storminlover/gifts).



       The Seekers of Truth are known for several things, but the foremost is their ability to employ secrecy and subterfuge when their armoured templar compatriots would be unable to act. Purported ability to do so, in Cassandra’s case. Subtlety is not her strong suit, and if one was to ask the Left Hand, it wouldn’t even be in the dictionary of words that could be used to define the Right Hand. 

         Which is why no one expects Cassandra to be the first to crack the code that encrypts the Spymaster’s list for Wintersend, nor for her to do it in so little a span of time.

         Tongue poking out from the corner of her mouth and ink streaking her fingertips, she holds up the deciphered code. She was never particularly good at that aspect of investigation, if she’s being honest with herself about her abilities, and it’s purely a combination of sheer determination and years of observation that aids her. That, and a desire to do something that Leliana won’t disapprove of.  They may be equals in rank, so far as it matters outside of the Chantry, but a small, mostly-quiet part of Cassandra recoils at every exasperated sigh the Spymaster tosses her way in the War Room.

         A statuette—gold, specifically—of Andraste, fine wine, any shoes save those from Fereldan; the list goes on and the Seeker draws a hand over her face, dotting black along her cheek and jaw when she reaches the request for  _nug_  chow. She can’t believe she’s spent the last three hours cracking the code to find out that Leliana wants pretty things.

         Even  _Sera_  could have told her that.

         Cassandra crumples it, very nearly tossing the page into the fire, but stays her hand at the last moment. Anger will get you nowhere, the beloved and long-gone voice of her mentor rings soothingly through her head, urging calm. With an aggravated sigh, she smoothes out the wrinkles from the paper and regards the list with a critical eye once more. Practicality would urge her to simply go for a pair of shoes or food to keep Schmooples and Boulette fat for another year, but even the Seeker can be sentimental.  

         Keep her in the light, a holy voice they both loved dearly said, and Cassandra does just that as notes drip through the air. With imagination at the loom, she weaves an image of a woman clothed in a dress of starlight and sky, stepping elegantly through the room with smile fixed to her lips as easily as she would a battlefield with bow in hand. Gold stars and blue skies, to bring out the hues in her eyes and cool the flame-kissed hair that swirls cropped and loose around her ears.

         A dress it is, though it is considerably more difficult for Cassandra to reign in Vivienne’s attempts at getting the tailors in Val Royeaux to create something more fashionable. Leliana does not  _follow_ , she insists, she  _leads_  by example, and so the dress must as well. It doesn’t come in time for Wintersend, much to the Seeker’s distress—not that it is apparent except through a deeper furrow of her brow and a brisker snap to the leash of her temper—but rather a day after, shortly after the Spymaster’s lips brush against hers in adherence to the mistletoe hanging overhead.

         Cassandra’s not quite sure what to make it all either, but the blue silk dress rests in tissue and satin, ready to bestow upon the woman it was made for. She certainly isn’t going to wear it herself, though she doesn’t dare take it to Leliana herself either. Perhaps the Seeker’s legendary courage has failed her at last, for her to send a sealed missive and the boxed dress with a messenger, but she remembers the pink heat that spread across the Left Hand’s cheeks and thinks otherwise.  There are many ways to be courageous  _(a first step taken, being in the right place at the wrong time)_ , just as beauty lies in both the eye of the beholder and beholden.

         The note is short, written in a firm script that is characteristically hers, and uncharacteristically cryptic.

> _Leliana, **  
> ** _
> 
> _As the moth sees light and goes toward flame, **  
> ** _ _She should see fire and go towards Light._
> 
> _— Cassandra._ **  
> **

         Leliana is either going to bury  _her_  in a hole, or bury  _herself_  in a hole, but it is completely worth it if it makes her smile even a little.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr as a gift for [shieldedbyflame](http://shieldedbyflame.tumblr.com/) , a wonderful Leliana roleplayer.  
> The dress in question is basically inspired by [this fanart](http://crystalgraziano.tumblr.com/post/104963355658/) (by crystalgraziano) of Leliana in a fancy gown at Halamshiral.
> 
> Don't get me started on the Hands of the Divine and their nearly decade-long working relationship and what that entails because I will honestly never stop.


End file.
